Sackings throw Sharon's coalition into crisis

The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, was embroiled in a political crisis today after sacking four ultra-orthodox ministers from his coalition government after they failed to back his austere budget allocations.

The ministers were fired after two orthodox Jewish parties failed to support Mr Sharon's emergency spending cutback measures in a vote last night. Their dismissals could remove his clear majority in parliament.

However, Mr Sharon has 48 hours before the dismissals take effect and analysts predicted the prime minister will reach an understanding with the two parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, that will keep them in the coalition and avert early elections.

Without the two parties, Mr Sharon would command just 60 of the 120 parliament seats - just one seat away from losing a vote of no confidence, which would lead to new elections. Under Israeli law, a government can be brought down by a vote of 61 members of parliament on a no-confidence motion.

While most attention has been focused on the Palestinian issue during Mr Sharon's 14-months in office, the two religious parties balked today at his government's economic austerity measures, which would have cut benefits for low-income Israelis. The plan was defeated in parliament last night by a vote of 47 to 44.

The Shas chairman, Eli Yishai, said he was open to negotiating a new economic plan that would allow his party to remain in Mr Sharon's broad-based coalition. He had led his party's resignation from former prime minister Ehud Barak's coalition, a move that helped bring about a prime ministerial election last year, three years early.

Mr Yishai, the interior minister, told Israel Army Radio: "It is clear that the battle with the current prime minister is different than the battle with the previous prime minister, Ehud Barak. Then, the goal was to bring down the prime minister." He said that, if Mr Sharon is "open to negotiations, we will negotiate".

Shas, with 17 seats, is the third-largest party in the parliament after Labour, with 23 seats, and Mr Sharon's hawkish Likud, with 19. United Torah Judaism has five seats.

Within an hour of last night's vote, Mr Sharon dismissed four Shas ministers and five deputy ministers from Shas and United Torah Judaism. The fifth Shas minister, who is not a member of parliament, said he would resign in solidarity.

The remaining coalition would be a shaky collection of parties at complete cross-purposes with each other, leading analysts to forecast a speedy resolution to the crisis that would reign in the rebellious parties.

"What smells like elections and looks like elections could end up being elections . . . but the prime minister doesn't really want elections now," political analyst Yaron Deckel said on Israel Radio.

The finance minister, Silvan Shalom, said it was likely a new vote would be held tomorrow. He said: "I don't think we should have an early election now, but if we get to a situation in which we cannot manage things, then nothing has been ruled out."

Mr Sharon put together his broad-based government after winning a special election for prime minister at the beginning of a Palestinian intifada.

He brought the moderate Labour party into his government and divided ministries equally with his own Likud, adding Shas, United Torah Judaism and several other parties to give himself a huge parliamentary majority.

Several small parties have exited and entered since then, but until yesterday, Mr Sharon's command in the parliament was unchallenged, although potential for trouble always lurked.

Members of the coalition have opposite interests, with Labour favouring far-reaching territorial concessions to the Palestinians and the rightwing National Religious party representing the interests of Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Labour also backs a Palestinian state in most of the West Bank and Gaza, while Likud voted last week against the creation of such an entity.

Some Labour members have been clamouring for their party to leave Mr Sharon's coalition, charging that Labour is just a political bulwark for the prime minister's frequent military strikes against the Palestinians.